network inequality notes
R: response
The way we build and grow social networks and apps can amplify and exacerbate the existing inequities in society. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
- tech startups typically get their initial funding from loved ones with money to spare.
- common advice: to grow your app's audience, start with people you know.
- but most app creators are white + privileged, and the average white american has only one black friend.
- social apps enhance our lives, but their creators are advised to make the tools fit their insulated, homogenous networks.
- which users get to benefit from social networks / platforms?
- being good isn't good enough, one must also be early.
- who gets to be early/featured on these apps?
- again, friends and family of the creators.
- invitation systems further cement the centrality and dominance of an app's first users.
- R: ya, but invitation systems are necessary to keep an under-resourced team in early-stage development from drowning. but invitations can still be done in a fair way, say for example, by allowing anyone to request invites, and accepting invites in a random 'lottery' sort of way.
- R: the groups that cobudget has invited to beta will have a large influence on what public beta looks like. a diverse set of beta-testers will help cobudget be a wider-serving and more inclusive tool.
- R: similarly, we should aim towards inclusion and diversity in our storytelling, instead of favoring groups close to us for sake of convenience. the more diverse our stories are, the more people will think "hey, cobudget is something we could use too"
- as apps grow, it becomes harder for users to new members to reach the same level of fame as earlier adopters.
- author says: "There should be a way for anybody to achieve the same level on the same network."
- funding:
loved ones--> crowdfunding- author suggests that crowdfunding networks affirmatively promote underrepresented/marginalized creators.
- initial userbase:
creators' loved ones--> people outside the creators' network- having a more diverse userbase expedites the improvement of the app.
- diverse users from the start better ensures that the app does not turn into a specialty product tailored to the needs of the creators' internal network.
- also! an app's featured users should show diversity. this is fair to the app's content creators, and also helps make the app more welcoming to a broader set of users.
- as an early adopter of a new app, you can be explicit about expecting diversity. app creator's listen closely to feedback from their first users, so as an early user, you have the opportunity to voice the necessity for diversity and turn it into an action. as the app grows, this voice may become more dilute.
- featured users: as an app creator, one must make sure that there are ways for new stars to flourish.
The issues around who gets to found and fund today’s apps are well known. It’s an exclusive club. But if the people making those apps make smart choices, the users and beneficiaries of their efforts might look like a much more equitable cross-section of the communities they’re trying to serve.